The businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE heavily utilize modern technologies and digital solutions to boost their operational capabilities, performance and productivity. No matter if a business is small or large, if it is a B2C or B2B business, or what industry sector it belongs to, the software solutions and tools are playing crucial role from day-to-day tasks to implementing long-term success strategies. As businesses grows their software needs also grow. There are two major types of software solutions that are available in the market, commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) and customized software development. The commercial off-the-shelf software or COTS are designed for mass audience and usually follow general standards, hence the COTS are generic solutions. The COTS are easier to deploy and initial cost is low, however, in longer run they might unable to fulfill the needs of the business. That is why businesses need customized software development. The customized software are tailor-made solutions designed exclusively for the business to meet their very specific needs which can’t be fulfilled by the COTS.
Obviously when a business needs to develop a customized software solution they also have to invest more resources, that is why the initial cost of the custom software development is relatively high, but in long term the custom software development can yield better ROIs than COTS. The markets in Dubai and all around the UAE are very dynamic, businesses will have to be more reactive and proactive in order to beat the competition. For that they require cutting-edge software solutions and technology that can provide them a competitive advantage and help them boost their capabilities and performance. The cost of custom software development is increasing day by day as more and more businesses are preferring customized solutions over COTS. Usually businesses have limited budget for such procurements hence it is very difficult to go overboard for custom software development projects. Usually due to several common mistakes by the managers and the software development team the cost can go several time more than what it can actually be. In this blog we will enlist key factors that can significantly reduce the cost of custom software development and help businesses get the best value out of their project.
Start with Making a Plan and Setting Goals for the Custom Software Development
Many custom software development projects cost more time and money due to poor planning or no planning at all. For any project the planning phase is crucial. If you make a proper plan before starting a customized software development project you can save a huge amount of resources, cost and time. Usually in Dubai and all around the UAE businesses tend to allocate budget first then initiate the project. The best approach is to make a project plan first and then decide the budget limit for it. If that is not possible, which usually isn’t possible, then the project manager should create a proper project plan to keep everything within the given budget and time limits. Usually the customized software development projects exceed their estimates in terms of cost and time. This is because the project managers doesn’t make a proper plan and skip the research and discovery phase. Any software serves a particular purpose, if you have a need for a new software then there must be a purpose and goal for that. The custom software development project plan starts with the product goals.
The first step of making a project plan for a custom software development is to clearly understand the business goals of the project. It means what problems the custom software will be solving in future? How it will help improving certain things or processes. The best way is to sit with the users and understand their problems, theirdesired solution or their expectations from the project. This will help you clearly understand the business goals of the custom software development project. Obviously the custom software will be designed to support certain work flows and processes, it would have certain features, better to list them all. Then rearrange the list as per the priority or importance of each feature. The project manager can also engage a business analyst at this stage to further refine the list. The next step is to prepare a scope of work or software requirement specification document. The document will outline the technical details of all the features that are needed and will provide you a better understanding of the final outcome.
Prepare Requirement Documents for the Customized Software
Preparing a software requirement document is the best way to eliminate the ambiguitiesand confusions. It can significantly reduce the cost of the custom software development. Usually what happens is that the businesses don’t specify clearly what they need, instead they loosely asked for certain features. On later stages when the software start gaining a form and structure or in some cases after the full development, the businesses then realize that they are missing certain things, or what they got was not intended to be like that, hence they require changes, iterations and in some cases wants to add more features, which not only increase the cost but also delay the project completion. That is why it is crucial to prepare a detailed SOW (scope of work) or SRS (software requirement specification) document. Usually the project managers or business analysts prepare this document as it have in-depth details of the specifications and functionalities. Along with the SOW or SRS the Vision, Backlog and User Story Mapping is also important. Without all these details the project execution will be extremely difficult and the chances of failure are too high.
Without proper documentation you can face following issues:
- Incorrect or wrong functionalities and features
- Problems, disputes and revisions during the custom software development process
- The developer might get confused about the most important and least important features
- Additional time and cost for the changes and iterations during the development phase
- The work flow, user interface and user experience will fail to satisfy the software users
- The software might failed to solve the problems ort to boost the performance as anticipated
- Additional cost would be added to modify/upgrade software which will impact the ROI too
Most of the custom software development companies in Dubai, UAE faced these problems or regular bases. Sometimes the businesses failed to communicate their exact needs, sometimes the final outcome is different from their expectations, sometimes incomplete information are provided and on later stages the project manager and the business analysts realize it which disrupt the development process and cost additional time and money. That is why a proper and detailed scope of work (SOW) or software requirement specification (SRS) is absolutely essential to minimize the cost of the custom software development project.
Chose the Best Technology Stack and Software Development Platforms
The technology and the development platforms plays a crucial role in the cost of the customized software. It is best to choose the right technology stack and the platforms at the beginning, even before starting the development process. This can save a lot of time and cost too. Incompatible technology or wrong technology selection could lead to large revision and improvement costs. If the integration is involved the technology should be able to support the required integration with the existing systems and tools. It is important that the technology you are selecting is also capable of delivering the required features and functionalities. There are few major components where the technology has to be selected carefully such as front-end, server-side or core app platform, database and coding language and platforms. These key components can have huge impact on the cost of the customized software. For the technology you have selected you also need the skilled team or individuals, different technology platform have different levels of popularity and in market they have different value which determines the cost of the development.
For example here in Dubai or anywhere else in UAE an average PHP developer will cost you at least three time less than an average Python developer. This doesn’t mean the Python is superior to the PHP or the PHP is superior to the python. It only depends on the simple rule every market follows, which is supply and demand. The PHP developers are easy to find in UAE however, the Python developers are rarer. Furthermore the businesses should also consider the long-term impact of the technology on the ROI. If a right technology is chosen which is widely used, acquiring vendors and getting support would be easier and cheaper. Another impact of the technology is on the overall development time which also impact the cost of the project. Reliable and widely used technology and platform usually tend to offer great products with less issues, and more cost-efficient support and scalability. The right technology can significantly reduce the cost of the custom software development project.
Chose a Good Custom Software Development Team
For custom software development it is extremely important to choose a right vendor or outsourcing partner. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE there are a lot of vendors who offer custom software development services on top of that there are several offshore options are also available. The offshore companies could be 10 times cheaper but 10 time riskier too. We never recommend offshore vendors, the offshore vendors doesn’t abide by the UAE laws, they usually take advance payment, they are located in a far distanced place where usually customers don’t go and if they have to go then they will also have to bear extra travelling expense. The offshore companies are problematic. However, here in UAE there are so many options available, some are good some are not as that good. Dealing with a local company will mitigate the risk and businesses can have the protection of law as well. However, the cost is our main agenda for the article. But the cost is not the only cost that a custom software development company quote you at first. In fact the deployment, maintenance, upgrade, scalability and service all are included in the cost of the project.
Here are a few steps to select a right outsourcing partner or vendor for your custom software development project in Dubai, UAE:
- Step 1: Start with internet search, ask your friends, coworkers and other people to recommend you a software development company in Dubai or anywhere in UAE
- Step 2: Make a list of at least 10 custom software development companies in UAE and rank them on the bases of their portfolio
- Step 3: Check for the relevant experience and short list the top 5 companies, consider their physical location too, this would make meetings more convenient
- Step 4: Evaluate these five on the bases of their work, partners, customers, experience in relevant field, relevant services, project execution practices, and consider other positive traits
- Step 5: Request them to submit their quotes, short list the best 3 and negotiate with them about the timeline and budget
- Step 6: Get into agreement with the vendor with best offer
See More: How to Choose the Right Software Development Vendor for Your Business
A good software development team with adequate knowledge and experience can make a huge difference. The biggest advantage of hiring an experienced and well organized team is that they will take less time and their work will have better quality too. Due to their experience they will be able to offer better assistance and will help you improve features and functionalities too. A good custom software development company can significantly reduce the time and cost of the project.
Start with Developing MVP First
When businesses make a plan to develop a very sophisticated and elaborate custom software they usually end up spending much more than anticipated due to the sophistication, multiple revisions and changes followed by multiple testing phases and feedback from stakeholders and users. Whenever a software concept is developed it is developed to solve certain problems. However, when it comes to drawing board, a lot of cosmetic features are also added. Which can increase the scope of work and specifications as well. That is why it is a common practice in custom software development to build an MVP or Minimum Viable Product first. The MVP is simply a scaled-down version of the actual product. It can have all essential features or limited features of the actual product. Once the MVP is built, it is provided to all the stakeholders and the system users who evaluate the product and provide their feedback. The MVP helps businesses understand if the final product will be able to deliver the value they are expecting from it. The success or failure of the MVP will determine if the business should invest more in developing the complete customized software solution or if they will have to rework on the concept to come up with a completely different idea altogether.
The MVP or Minimum Viable Product have major features that allow the users to interact with the software which help them understand what they will get with the full product. This will help the businesses to understand if the product is going in the right direction or not and help them further fine tune the final product. More importantly it is very cost-efficient and prevent a lot of risks. Usually when a full-fledged custom software is developed it is difficult to make changes to it, it also take more time to make those changes which definitely impact the cost and can increase it by a lot. However, with an MVP the businesses can start with the limited features and down the road they can add more features one by one to minimize the cost. This also help them to integrate the product more effective into the organizational environment and IT infrastructure. Here are some key advantages of developing an MVP first:
- Highlight the core functionalities and focus on them most
- Evaluate and assess if the product will be compatible with the vision
- Early introduction to the end-users help integrating the software more effectively
- Fewer changes to made and minimal work is required to build an excellent UI
- Minimum risks and more space for course correction and upgrades in future
- Low initial cost and with ability to control future investment in the product
The MVP or Minimum Viable Product help businesses segment all the features and specifications in three segments essential, passible, and desirable or cosmetic features. On the bases of these segments the business can decide which features they would be needing the most which help them optimize and reduce the cost.
Leverage Automation and Utilize Pre-built Features
The software development is a very time consuming task. It requires a lot of efforts and work hours to complete a single feature of a software. Obviously each custom software is different from the one another with different product goals. However, when we are using certain technologies they offer certain features and functionalities that different software developers utilize in their programs to achieve different types of goals. The programming languages that are used to build the software usually builds them in form of blocks and functions. Each block of code serves a purpose and if the software developer utilizes these blocks it could save them a lot of time and a lot of man hours. Which definitely help reducing the cost of the product. If the developer build each code block from scratch then they will have to put a lot of time on it, which definitely raise the cost of the product. There are pre-built templates which can be used as the foundation and the customization can be done on the top of it as an additional layer, this could significantly save the development time and efforts.
There are certain frameworks which can save a lot of time and effort, the software developer can utilize these templates and frameworks to save a lot of time. Such templates and frameworks came with in-built libraries and pre-build functions which allow the software developer to effortlessly add features in the software. Such tools and methods can reduce the custom software development cost from 10% to 80%. That is huge, and it have huge impact on the cost of the custom software as well. The custom software development team can use low-code or no-code environment and platforms to work on the development phase of the custom software which can save a lot of time and resources. Furthermore the testing and various other steps can also be done utilizing the automatic tools. These days a huge variety of automatic testing tools are available, which can perform several tests on your custom software such as user experience, user interface, performance, load and stress test, and even security testing. The open-source platforms can help the businesses to build low-cost customized software applications. The open-source platforms offer a large variety of free libraries and support a lot of customization which gave us a great advantages.
API-First Approach can Significantly Reduce the Custom Software Development Cost
The API or Application Programing Interface is not a new term for the software developers. However, the API-first Approach is a relatively new term and it got traction since past few years. The API integration allow a software or application to utilize the database, functions and features of another software, application, operating system or services. This is what made them super-efficient and very convenient for the custom software developers. The API-first development approach can significantly reduce the development time and also efforts. Since the developers can utilize pre-built functions and features which are already tested hence the chances of errors and bugs are also reduced. On top of that the development teams can work in parallel on multiple APIs which also help reducing the timeframe of the development phase. The APIs can be used in multiple projects simultaneously and they also help developers getting advantage of the other software and system via integration. Hence they don’t have to program a lot of features, instead they can utilize those features from the existing software and tools. This simplify the custom software development process, reduce the development team effort thus the cost is reduced.
Better Project Management Help Reducing the Cost
The project management of a custom software development project is crucial. Usually the outsourcing partner or vendor appoints a project manager/business analysts to oversee the work. Same is done at the customer end too. The businesses usually appoints a project manager for their custom software development project. The core responsibility of the project manager at both parties is to maximize the performance and the quality of the outcome. For that the project manager or business analyst builds a project plan which include all major and minor details along with milestones and all variables that can impact the progress. The project manager closely monitor the progress and performance of the custom software development team to assess if everything is on track and made course correction whenever needed. The performance management is also a crucial aspect. It ensures all team members achieve their respective goals and contribute to the completion of the project.
The best approach is to segment the software and set milestones on the bases of stages and features this help both parties to align with the scope and ensure a timely project execution is made by both parties. The project manager and the methods he or she uses to execute the custom software development project matters a lot. If everything goes as plan there are very less room for errors, revisions and repetition. A professional project manager has ability to complete the project in time by boosting the morale of the software development team and by solving the problems and disputes to ensure a timely project execution. The project manager also keep an eye on the progress and keep checking everything which help them reducing the errors and bugs from the system which costs a lot. Furthermore the project manager appoint different team members for different tasks to maximize the performance which reduce the required work hours and the cost too. The project manager also ensures that the scope of work or software requirement specification documents are followed correctly which minimize the risk and cost.
Conclusion
In this modern time the businesses have to rely on various technological solutions in order to keep up with the fast paced markets. Here in Dubai and all around the UAE the software tools and digital solutions are very common among businesses for both internal and external use. The customized software development started gaining momentum since past few years and the market is rapidly growing. This means more and more businesses are acquiring custom software and more companies have started offering custom software development services. When it comes to a custom software development or procurement of any such solution, usually businesses allocate a certain budget for the project, which make it very difficult for the project manager to achieve desired solution within their budget limit. Furthermore we also noticed that due to some very simple and easily avoidable mistakes, the project manager end up paying many times more than what they should pay for the custom software development.
In this blog we have highlighted those mistakes and tried to provide a road-map or guide to custom software development projects. If you want to learn more or if you want us to help you with your custom software needs, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us page or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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